Air giants Qantas and Air New Zealand have a bet on the big game tomorrow.   If, as most commentators expect, All Blacks are victorious, the Qantas crew will have to wear New Zealand rugby jerseys on Monday.  Air NZ pilots, however, will have to announce Australia’s win.

Both airlines shook on it after a bit of fun on Twitter.  The bet came about after an earlier suggestion that the losing airline repaint their fleet in the opposition colours.  Air New Zealand sent Qantas a digitally altered photo of a Qantas passenger plane painted completely black, with slogans including “team All Blacks” “bound in black” and “simply the best”.  Qantas replied with an image of an Air New Zealand plane in bright Australian gold, with the line that New Zealands plane “needs a golden touch”.

Air New Zealand responded: “We wouldn’t want to slow our planes down … with all that extra paint”, to which Qantas said : “We wouldn’t think you’d be in a hurry to get here when you lose.”

Qantas planes are usually kitted out in a white-and-red, while Air New Zealand fly white aircraft with a black tail.

After much fun was had by rugby following twitter fans, the final, more realistic bet was suggested :

Air NZ : “How about this? On Monday in the air, your crew wear our jerseys,” 

Qantas :  “It’s on! But let’s not leave the pilots out!”

Both companies then formalised the bet offline – although we are not holding our breath for a statement about a potential re-spray next week from either company.